Controlling your mental state before speaking

If you are really feeling uptight and very nervous about a forthcoming talk one thing you must do is to change and alter your state of mind. Now I know that this is easy for me to say but usually people do not know how to change their state properly. When you are preparing for public speaking you must warm up just as singers and dancers and also athletes do. If you do not do public speaking often it can be quite daunting and as you begin worrying and getting anxious all the activity in the frontal brain, called the cortex, begins to shift to the rear of the brain where the more primitive structures are located. These are known as the limbic system and reptilian brains which basically prepare us for fight or flight. Many people do feel sense of near panic when asked to public speak and unfortunately this instinct kicks in big time. Then of course we have problems thinking clearly because as our heart rate increases we begin to lose those fine thinking skills that the cortex does so well and we being to freeze up and the fear of stumbling over our words increases.

What we need then is a technique or a way of breaking state that will shift the activity of the hindbrain back to the frontal regions when we require it.

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One way to do this is to start rubbing your hands together, palms together that is, start doing it reasonably slowly and then suck in your lips and cheeks, suck in so that your lips are tight and breathe as normally as is possible for a few minutes. You must do this for at least three minutes to effect a change. This starts to bring back the activity from the fight or flight areas to the frontal areas. When the anxiety and adrenaline ahs begun to subside (remember this will take a few minutes) you can then start slow deep belly breathing which again you must continue for at least five minutes but ten minutes is much better. The slow breathing will send signals to your body that all is well again. You can also do some sums in your head or times tables which again gets more activity into your frontal brain. When you breathe out make sure you breathe all the way out and expel as much air as possible as when you retain carbon dioxide it is the build up of this gas that causes the anxiety to start physiologically so expel it all and breathe in slowly and deeply. The 7/11 breathing technique is very good for this.